Computing devices are routinely used at work, at home, and everywhere else. Computing devices advantageously enable electronic communication, data sharing (e.g., documents, pictures, music, film, etc.), the use of application-specific software, and access to information for electronic commerce through the Internet and other computer networks.
The term computing device generally refers to desktop computers, server computers, laptop computers, mobile computing devices (e.g., personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell-phones, etc.), as well as any other type of computer system. A computing device typically includes a processor and a memory as well as other types of electronic devices, such as, a disk drive.
Disk drives typically employ a moveable head actuator to frequently access large amounts of data stored on a disk. One example of a disk drive is a hard disk drive. A conventional hard disk drive has a head disk assembly (“HDA”) including at least one magnetic disk (“disk”), a disk clamp and a disk fastener (or screw) to mount the disk to a spindle motor that rapidly rotates the disk, and a head stack assembly (“HSA”) that includes a moveable actuator arm and a head gimbal assembly (“HGA”) with a moveable transducer head for reading and writing data. The HSA forms part of a servo control system that positions the moveable head over a particular track on the disk to read or write information from and to that track, respectively.
Due to the cost competiveness of the disk drive industry, the components of a disk drive need to be assembled in a very precise and cost effective manner. In order to be cost effective, complex components of the disk drive, such as disk clamps, disks, spindle motors, HDAs, HGAs, etc., need to be assembled, with fasteners, such as screws, in a very time effective manner with a very low error rate—even though many of the components require highly precise assembly. Also, many of these types of components often need to be assembled in a very clean fashion in which debris and contamination particles are kept to a minimum. Further, as disk drives are being actively utilized more and more both as moveable external disk drives and/or for use in smaller computing devices such as laptops and mobile devices (e.g. PDAs, cell-phones, etc.), they are increasingly requiring smaller and smaller components for assembly.
In particular, for small-form-factor mobile and enterprise hard disk drives, the assembly process is requiring the use of smaller and smaller screws. These smaller screws are becoming very difficult to feed with currently utilized feeding mechanisms in current screw bit finders because of the screw height to head diameter ratio (i.e., the aspect ratio). In fact, many of the new small-form-factor disk drives are beginning to utilize screws with an aspect ratio close to 1.0 (i.e., a low aspect ratio), which are encountering many problems in the assembly process utilizing current screw bit finders.
Newer small-form-factor disk drives need to be assembled with more reliability, performance, and compactness and utilize new screws with low aspect ratios. Unfortunately, existing feeding mechanisms in existing screw bit finders, when utilizing low aspect ratio screws, have encountered many problems in that the low aspect ratio screws are often flipped and delivered upside down which damages the manufacturing process and/or the disk drive. Common problems that occur with existing feeder mechanisms in current screw bit finders when utilizing low aspect ratio screws in the manufacturing of small-form-factor disk drives include: flipped screws; screws that get stuck in the feeding mechanism—which causes interruption and down time; contamination that is generated due to flipped screws and slanted screws; and the reduction in disk drive yield due to all of these problems.
Accordingly, a screw finder that may be utilized with low aspect ratio screws in order to reduce: potential screw jams; particle contamination; and machine down time; for the manufacture of small-form-factor disk drives, is sought after.